Just like travelling Bhutan, independent travel is not available in Tibet any longer. All travelers to Lhasa have to book tours through a registered Tibet tour operator, like us, Travel Tibet China, and apply for Tibet permits beforehand.
As for visiting Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, all you need is Tibet Travel Permit, the entry permit to Tibet Autonomous Region. Since Tibet Tourism Bureau(TTB) won’t accept any individual application, you can email us the photo image of your Passport information page and Chinese Visa page and the photo of yourself at least 20 days before your Tibet tour starts. And then we’ll take care of the rest matters. Once Tibet Visa issued, we’ll have it delivered to your hotel by express in Mainland China.
Travelling Lhasa can be done at any time of the year. The best time to visit Lhasa totally depends on what you want to experience and when you are free to travel.
Lhasa Spring (March-May): During Lhasa clearest season, it’s perfect to roam around backstreets of Lhasa old town, follow the ritual Barkhor kora with devout pilgrims, soak up the cozy hot spring at Yangbajain, etc. If time allows, you can also extent your trip to Nyingchi and participate the rosy Peach Blossom Festival.
Lhasa Summer (June-August): Wanna escape from the scorching summer? Yeah, Lhasa, at the altitude of 3,650 meters, offers you cool days with the average temperature around 20℃. With the ice melting, you can take Namtso Lake trekking or Tashi Byland Kora and get your camera ready for the spectacular sunrise and sunset over Namtso.
Lhasa Autumn (September-November): Under the dry and stable weather, it’s time to take the thrilling high-altitude treks, like the scenic trekking from Ganden to Samye Monastery, the hermitage sites trekking from Pabonka to Pubjoi Monastery, etc. If trekking is not your thing, you can also take part in Bathing Festival at Lhasa River and Ongkor Festival in the suburbs of Lhasa.
Lhasa Winter (December-February): Winter in Lhasa is not that cold as you think. Usually, the temperature still remains about 10℃in the daytime. With less tourists coming to Tibet in the low season, it becomes much easier to book Tibet train ticket. And you can also enjoy great discounts on all the tour costs, like hotel, flight tickets, entrance ticket fee. Under the warm sunshine and snow mountains, you’ll encounter more pious pilgrims prostrating along Barkhor Street and experience authentic culture and exotic customs through Tibet New Year/Lhosar Festival.
2. Whenever you visit Lhasa, please do remember to wear sunhat, sunglasses and sunscreen to protect yourself from the intense ultraviolet light. And it’s advisable to dress in layers so that you can put on and take off clothes easily.
Generally speaking, there are two ways to get to Tibet,namely, entering Tibet from Kathmandu, Tibet and traveling Tibet from Mainland China.
Get to Lhasa from Kathmandu: Usually, it takes you around one and a half hour to fly from Kathmandu Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM) to Lhasa Gongga Airport(LXA). And you can also travel overland from Kathmandu to Lhasa via Gyirong Port and make a detour to Everest Base Camp en route, lasting around 8 days.
Get to Lhasa from Mainland China: Starting from Tibet-entry cities like Beijing, Shanghai, etc., tourists can either take Tibet train or flight to Lhasa. Longing for an overland tour to Lhasa? No worries! Please feel free to contact our Tibet travel guru to work your adventure tour wherever you depart from Chengdu, Xining, Yunnan, Xinjiang.
Touring Lhasa, you can take the splendid man-made wonders and fantastic natural landscape in just one go. If you are a history lover, then you should not miss out Potala Palace, the landmark of Tibet; Norbulingka, the summer palace of Dalai Lama; and Tibet Museum, the encyclopedia of Tibetan culture. Interested in Tibetan Buddhism? Get ready to visit Jokhang Temple, the spiritual center and the ultimate pilgrimage destination for Tibetan pilgrims; Drepung Monastery, the largest monastery in Tibet; Sera Monastery, the vigorous monk debating in the afternoon. Wanna take great shoots of Tibet lakes? Here come the holiest Yamdrok and Namtso Lake.
Traditional Tibetan foods and drinks mainly consist of Tsampa, yak meat, mutton, butter tea, barley wine and various dairy products. Apart from these staple food, Lhasa have more to offer. Wandering along Barkhor Street, you’ll find loads of restaurants providing kinds of Nepalese cuisines, Indian dishes, western meals at a very reasonable price.
As the capital of Tibet, Lhasa has a wide variety of accommodations for you to choose from, ranging from the high-end hotels to the simplest guesthouses. Just a kind reminder here, due to the remote location and economic development, the hotel facility and service are not as good as that of big cities of China. To put it simply, a five-star hotel in Lhasa may be only as high as a three-star hotel in Beijing, and you’d better not hold high expectation for hotels in Lhasa.
Top luxury 5-star hotels: Luxury St. Regis Lhasa Resort, Lhasa Manasarovar Hotel
Comfortable 4-start hotels: Lhasa Gang Gyan Hotel, Lhasa Yak Hotel
Economic 3-star hotels: Tibet Villa Hotel, Lhasa Shangbala Hotel
Tibetan-style hotels: Lhasa Dhood Gu Hotel, House of Shambhala
Cheap guesthouses: Dong Cuo International Youth Hostel, Phuntsok Kasang International Youth Hostel
Professional Tibet tourism designers.We provide independent VIP private tour and good-quality shared tour for your choice. According to your request, combined with our recommendations, we can customize your exclusive route, and make your Tibet trip a satisfactory one. We have mysterious Tibetan shared tours for you to choose, according to your own travel plans and budget, to help you achieve your travel goals more easily. We smoothen your journey and take you feel the real beauty of Tibet.